Snow blast brings 25 cm

Snow blast brings 25 cm

Lauren Gilhula, Special to the Times

Residents of Tuscany Court come together to help shovel each others’ driveways and clean the middle of their court on Saturday, after Friday’s snow storm. Top right: snow blowers were everywhere on
Friday and Saturday.

Snow blast brings 25 cm

Lauren Gilhula, Special to the Times

Four-year-old Patrick Roy digs in his front yard on Saturday after Friday’s snowstorm.

Snow blast brings 25 cm

Lauren Gilhula, Special to the Times

Snow blowers were out everywhere to deal with last Friday's snow event.

Friday’s freak snowstorm may have caused time to stand still for much of the city with schools and community programs closed, but it wasn’t even close to setting any records.

Cambridge received an average of 25 centimetres of the white stuff Friday, slightly less than surrounding areas like the west end of Kitchener, which received 31 cm. But the record for one day of snowfall still stands, according to Peter Kimbell, warning preparedness meteorologist at Environment Canada. A whopping 61 cm fell in the Cambridge-Kitchener area in Nov. 24, 1950.

While last week’s snow blast didn’t leave any imprints on the record books, the region received more than was predicted, said Kimbell.

“We got a lot more than was originally projected,” he noted.

Early storm advisories were calling for anywhere from 10 to 15 cm. But the “Texas low” weather system, originating from Oklahoma, moved over the southern Great Lakes and carried a bigger whallop than anticipated. Among the worst hit last weekend was St. Catharines, which received an average snowfall of 44 centimetres.

Friday might not have been the worst storm on record, but it had an impact on life in the city. Both public and Catholic school boards took the unusual step to not only cancel school buses and taxi transportation, but also closed schools altogether. Local universities and college campus programs cancelled classes and the cities of Cambridge and Kitchener declared a snow event, prohibiting parking on local streets to allow plows to clear roads.

Cambridge City Hall and some city centres remained open, however, city officials announced early closures in the late afternoon. Meanwhile, Friday’s intermittent snowfalls made for non-stop shovelling for residents hoping to prevent themselves from getting snowed in.